Monthly Archives: September 2013

My emotional plate has overflowed recently. Some of it is because of the many things that tend to pile up around this time of the year by default. A lot of it is a sense of foreboding that I cannot explain, but I’ve felt growing for several months now. Some of it is seasonal changes. Some of it has been being sick (the last two Wednesdays I’ve been pummeled with various “icks”). Some of it is a sense of loss. Some, a sense the world is spinning out of control…

And some of it is avoidance… simple avoidance and escapism.

I’m sorry for that later. But I’m still going to avoid you all for a few more days.

There’s a problem with these Sunday posts, a problem best expressed by asking “some thing?” How I pick a solitary thing out of all that a normal day can offer? It can get challenging. Good weekends (and this has been one of those super, awesome, amazing, love it! weekends that feel like the world is brand new) have so much happening that picking just one thing to focus on seems impossible.

And the so-called “bad weekends” have the opposite problem. Nothing seems worth noting.

A lack of inspiration isn’t a problem this time…. What a wonderful weekend this was!

Treasures for me

But I probably should focus on one thing since I’m already pushing the “late night” limit again (yes, last weekend was pretty wonderful too). So, as much fun as the sale at Grandma & Grandpa Mabee’s church was, that was yesterday, and doesn’t count as a Sunday adventure. But I am still tickled at the trove of nifties I bought for $8.00. And really, can you blame me?

And I also probably shouldn’t dwell too long on the fun we had at the Normans Kill Preserve where the Boodle found acorns well over an inch in size nearly everywhere on the path and got the chance to try climbing a rope swing someone had hidden in the woods.

Oh, and the concert! I definitely shouldn’t spend too much time on the beautiful opening night concert put on by the Albany Symphony last night…. Certainly not! It would be decidedly unfair to discuss after the fact how Clarice Assad‘s Nhanderu took me back spiritually to shadows and campfires and skies full of stars and fiery volcanic eruptions and the calls of the gods of earth and sky… of birds and the dawn of humanity, of beasts in the throes of survival and the peaceful green of forests. Then came a sublime violin concerto by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky‘s Fourth Symphony with its fire and passion….

New ladder styles

No, I definitely shouldn’t dwell on that.

So today… we made today another family outing day. With one small mission on our schedule, we stopped off at the Boodle’s school to trim off dead wood from an old apple tree in their playground. Between hauling logs and gathering apples, I kept myself pretty busy. Not too busy though… After picking up two full bags of apples for saucing, I headed over to check on my hubby’s progress, to almost walk into…

Bothered Bees

Yeah… I didn’t get closer than that. After stepping back carefully, I checked in the tree and saw that there had once been a huge hive about 25ft or so up. Now the hive was in several pieces, several of which were on the ground. Given the gathering on this layer of comb compared to the others, I almost wonder if the queen wasn’t being sheltered in that small swarm.

The Half Moon in harbor

Once we’d accomplished our mission, we headed up to Albany to spend some time at the Corning Preserve in Albany and walk down to see the Half Moon. The skies were cloudy, hinting at rain but never bringing it. There was enough sun to make the Hudson River glisten.

And the Boodle found a new passion…

He wants to be a tour guide on the ship.

There was more to the day, of course. There was time for the Boodle to play on the playground, moments of laying back on benches and watching the clouds… there was even a short train with an orange caboose!

It wasn’t a planned weekend. Except for the concert, we had no idea of what we would be doing until we got in the car. And it was a wonderful weekend…

This was supposed to be the second installment of “Some Thing (4) Sunday”, but…

Yep, it’s Monday already.

That’s okay. I can still write this post. I still have my ROW80 check-in to make, I still have fun things to write about… and I’m still awake. (That last part might not be a good reason. At least, it is true.)

So what is the ‘thing’ that I was going to bring to the table today?

Apples…

Why? (mostly because we went to the Greenville Town Park this evening and picked apples from the old trees that grow there).

The park used to belong to the Vanderbuilt family (I have written about the park before here). Indeed, many of the old barns still serve for the local food pantry, storage, and even a shelter for kids to play in.

And there are fruit trees. Several varieties of apples and pears and even some actually tasty crab apples (I know I tried some this evening). This year it seems that all sorts of fruiting plants have produced bumper crops. Earlier in the year we had peaches upon peaches. The grapes in our yard I posted about last week. Now there are apples everywhere.

Or so it seems.

Most of the fruit I harvested this evening is unattractive. The huge tree over where the old playground used to be is covered with apple scab, flyspeck and sooty blotch. Only the scab is a problem for personal use. The other two fungi usually either wash right off or at the very least do nothing to humans.

Thanks to this evening’s trip, I now have two large grocery bags of apples and golf ball-sized Bartlet pears to trim down and prep in the morning (not bad for not having planned this venture, and not having any equipment with us). Apple sauce, apple butter…. Even an apple crisp or two is in the works. I even found a recipe for a quick and yummy looking apple butter made with crab apples that I hope to make with some of the fruit from the tree out front of our house. The tree is suffering from Cedar Apple Rust, but there is a lot of fruit on it. Since one of the best ways to prevent a continued infection is supposedly to keep fallen fruit from accumulating on the ground… why not use the good stuff?

I’ll let you know how it turns out. If it goes well, I might try some of the recipes that a nice person gathered (about half-way down the page) in this Chow Hound forum.

ROW80 check-in

Hmm, kind of in a holding pattern here. I’m squeaking out my five sentences, but only just. Reading is about the same… I’m almost done, however with the series I’ve been plowing through. I’ll see if writing picks up after that.

It would be nice, after all, to have something plotted out for the upcoming NaNoWriMo. I think a lot of what is holding me up from getting more than five sentences done is the fact that I’ve basically run through all my “notes” (I can’t call what I had prepared an outline given that it wasn’t that organized). Now I’m back to pantsing the story except for the major plot points I want to hit, and I keep heading down dead ends that I need to rework.

Since this ROWnd is almost over, I’m going to deal with hometending (cleaning, canning and winterizing) and leave the things as they are. Next ROWnd, I’ll start with a week or two of notes and organization of the remainder of Swan Song before attempting any increase in word count. After all, it is still progress, and it makes a lot more sense than scrambling for the last few days.

As for my ROW80 Fitness goals? More activity… more walks, more free weights… and unfortunately more sitting. I’ve got to learn how to read and walk… and how to not spend three hours reading up on various apple diseases because my intended walk in the park became a “shopping run”. (Alberta Ross wrote a wonderful post on discipline last week. I totally get where she’s coming from.) 😀